Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman on Monday said he believes Jewish law (Halakha) should be the binding law in Israel, Army Radio reported.

“Step by step, we will bestow upon the citizens of Israel the laws of the Torah and we will turn Halakha into the binding law of the nation,” said Neeman at a Jewish law convention at the Regency hotel in Jerusalem, in the presence of many rabbis and rabbinical judges.

“We must bring back the heritage of our fathers to the nation of Israel,” Neeman said. “The Torah has the complete solution to all of the questions we are dealing with,” he added.

However, Neeman’s statements during the conference were received with applauds from participants, among them Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

Soldier sent to detention for cooking on Shabbat after cat ate his meal

Kfir brigade soldier about to eat Shabbat meal finds out a cat has ‘tasted’ their meal. Soldier offers to cook new meal, gets caught, sentenced to 20 days in detention for violating IDF rules

Hanan GreenbergPublished: 12.02.09 / Israel News

A combat soldier from the Nahshon battalion was sentenced to 20 days in detention, after he found out a stray cat “tasted” his Shabbat meal and decided to cook a new meal, despite IDF’s strict orders that forbid cooking on the holy day.

Last weekend, the soldier and his friends, who serve with the Kfir division, entered the base’s dining room, and intended to eat from a pot of cholent (meat stew) that was cooked according to the Shabbat regulations.

However, before they managed to dig in, the soldiers were surprised to discover that a cat ate out of the pot. The soldier, who refused to eat from the tainted pot, offered instead to make a light meal for him and his friends.

As his luck would have it, during the meal preparations, one of the kitchen’s staff arrived and instructed the soldier to stop cooking immediately.

Details of the incident were handed over to the battalion commander, who decided to put the soldier on trial and sentenced him to 20 days in detention for violating IDF orders.

“There are clear orders about observing the Shabbat, and even if the food was inedible there are other options to get food without desecration of the Sabbath,” said IDF sources.

The soldier’s battalion friends, who expressed discontent with the harsh punishment, claimed the soldier “did not mean to disrespect anyone; he only wanted to make a meal – a symbolic punishment would have been sufficient.”

IDF’s Spokesperson office said in response: “This is a case of a soldier which was sentenced to detention due to disorderly conduct and violation of IDF rules. The soldier has been known to have disciplinary problems in the past.”

“The percentage of religious men among the senior IDF officers grew exponentially in the past decade. By 2005, half of the junior command and approximately 30 percent of the senior officers were religious, and, for the first time in Israel’s history, four members of the general staff wore skullcaps.” (Yoram Peri, “Land versus State: Israel and its Army after the Disengagement”)

The booklets distributed by the Israel Defense Forces rabbinate during the combat in Gaza, which Amos Harel wrote about in Haaretz yesterday (“IDF rabbi told troops fighting in Gaza: We must not cede a single inch of Israel), and the “Jewish Awareness” publications distributed by IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Rontzki, prove once again that the rabbi is giving his position a new and alarming interpretation … Rontzki distributes sermons written by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner that preach … the killing of civilians … In such an atmosphere, it is no wonder that extreme right-wing organizations are also smuggling into IDF bases sermons by Yitzhak Ginsburg, the rabbi of the yeshiva at Joseph’s Tomb. Ginsburg wrote the book “Baruch Hagever,” which praises the massacre by Baruch Goldstein against Arabs in the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994, and he is considered the spiritual mentor of the most violent and extremist settlers. Thus, under the aegis of the army’s chief rabbi, IDF soldiers are being exposed to chauvinist and racist incitement … (“A rabbinate gone wild,” Haaretz, Jan 27, 2009)

Orthodox [Judaic] soldiers are among the most motivated personnel in the IDF, with disproportionately high numbers volunteering for elite combat units and reserve duty, according to experts … (Jerusalem Post, Matthew Wagner and Yaakov Katz, Aug. 6, 2007)

An Israeli infantry battalion of fervently Orthodox soldiers plans to launch an advertising campaign this summer in major Jewish newspapers in the United States and Britain seeking more foreign recruits …

“I love the fact that I can fully live out my Jewish values while at the same time protecting Israel,” Taylor says …

Theoretically, any man — no women, of course — who meets these basic criteria can join the battalion, but in practice some 70 percent come from fervently Orthodox homes in Bnei Brak and other haredi enclaves.

Time is set aside for daily Talmud study and the food is glatt kosher. No women are allowed on the Jordan Valley base, but on Shabbat married soldiers can meet their wives outside the base.

“Nahal Haredi has the highest proportion of Diaspora volunteers of any Israeli unit,” Klebanow said. “They come to us with high motivation, and many subsequently make aliyah. Sometimes they are more Zionistic than native-born Israelis.” …

“Our enemies learn one way, and the one and only way is through the language of war and the language of the sword.”

“The percentage of religious men among the senior IDF officers grew exponentially in the past decade. By 2005, half of the junior command and approximately 30 percent of the senior officers were religious, and, for the first time in Israel’s history, four members of the general staff wore skullcaps.” (Yoram Peri, “Land versus State: Israel and its Army after the Disengagement”)

The booklets distributed by the Israel Defense Forces rabbinate during the combat in Gaza, which Amos Harel wrote about in Haaretz yesterday (“IDF rabbi told troops fighting in Gaza: We must not cede a single inch of Israel), and the “Jewish Awareness” publications distributed by IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Rontzki, prove once again that the rabbi is giving his position a new and alarming interpretation … Rontzki distributes sermons written by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner that preach … the killing of civilians … In such an atmosphere, it is no wonder that extreme right-wing organizations are also smuggling into IDF bases sermons by Yitzhak Ginsburg, the rabbi of the yeshiva at Joseph’s Tomb. Ginsburg wrote the book “Baruch Hagever,” which praises the massacre by Baruch Goldstein against Arabs in the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994, and he is considered the spiritual mentor of the most violent and extremist settlers. Thus, under the aegis of the army’s chief rabbi, IDF soldiers are being exposed to chauvinist and racist incitement … (“A rabbinate gone wild,” Haaretz, Jan 27, 2009)

Orthodox [Judaic] soldiers are among the most motivated personnel in the IDF, with disproportionately high numbers volunteering for elite combat units and reserve duty, according to experts … (Jerusalem Post, Matthew Wagner and Yaakov Katz, Aug. 6, 2007)

An Israeli infantry battalion of fervently Orthodox soldiers plans to launch an advertising campaign this summer in major Jewish newspapers in the United States and Britain seeking more foreign recruits …

“I love the fact that I can fully live out my Jewish values while at the same time protecting Israel,” Taylor says …

Theoretically, any man — no women, of course — who meets these basic criteria can join the battalion, but in practice some 70 percent come from fervently Orthodox homes in Bnei Brak and other haredi enclaves.

Time is set aside for daily Talmud study and the food is glatt kosher. No women are allowed on the Jordan Valley base, but on Shabbat married soldiers can meet their wives outside the base.

“Nahal Haredi has the highest proportion of Diaspora volunteers of any Israeli unit,” Klebanow said. “They come to us with high motivation, and many subsequently make aliyah. Sometimes they are more Zionistic than native-born Israelis.” …

“Our enemies learn one way, and the one and only way is through the language of war and the language of the sword.”

“The percentage of religious men among the senior IDF officers grew exponentially in the past decade. By 2005, half of the junior command and approximately 30 percent of the senior officers were religious, and, for the first time in Israel’s history, four members of the general staff wore skullcaps.” (Yoram Peri, “Land versus State: Israel and its Army after the Disengagement”)

The booklets distributed by the Israel Defense Forces rabbinate during the combat in Gaza, which Amos Harel wrote about in Haaretz yesterday (“IDF rabbi told troops fighting in Gaza: We must not cede a single inch of Israel), and the “Jewish Awareness” publications distributed by IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Rontzki, prove once again that the rabbi is giving his position a new and alarming interpretation … Rontzki distributes sermons written by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner that preach … the killing of civilians … In such an atmosphere, it is no wonder that extreme right-wing organizations are also smuggling into IDF bases sermons by Yitzhak Ginsburg, the rabbi of the yeshiva at Joseph’s Tomb. Ginsburg wrote the book “Baruch Hagever,” which praises the massacre by Baruch Goldstein against Arabs in the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994, and he is considered the spiritual mentor of the most violent and extremist settlers. Thus, under the aegis of the army’s chief rabbi, IDF soldiers are being exposed to chauvinist and racist incitement … (“A rabbinate gone wild,” Haaretz, Jan 27, 2009)

Orthodox [Judaic] soldiers are among the most motivated personnel in the IDF, with disproportionately high numbers volunteering for elite combat units and reserve duty, according to experts … (Jerusalem Post, Matthew Wagner and Yaakov Katz, Aug. 6, 2007)

An Israeli infantry battalion of fervently Orthodox soldiers plans to launch an advertising campaign this summer in major Jewish newspapers in the United States and Britain seeking more foreign recruits …

“I love the fact that I can fully live out my Jewish values while at the same time protecting Israel,” Taylor says …

Theoretically, any man — no women, of course — who meets these basic criteria can join the battalion, but in practice some 70 percent come from fervently Orthodox homes in Bnei Brak and other haredi enclaves.

Time is set aside for daily Talmud study and the food is glatt kosher. No women are allowed on the Jordan Valley base, but on Shabbat married soldiers can meet their wives outside the base.

“Nahal Haredi has the highest proportion of Diaspora volunteers of any Israeli unit,” Klebanow said. “They come to us with high motivation, and many subsequently make aliyah. Sometimes they are more Zionistic than native-born Israelis.” …

“Our enemies learn one way, and the one and only way is through the language of war and the language of the sword.”

Today, you can’t read two consecutive chapters in any Catholic religious education textbook without talking about Jews and Judaism. That is buttressed by the history of Catholics and Jews in the United States. It was not incidental that the agenda of the American bishops going into the Second Vatican Council, as well as coming out of it, was religious liberty, ecumenism and Catholic-Jewish relations. (Eugene Fisher, interviewed in National Catholic Reporter, February 23, 2007)

Today, you can’t read two consecutive chapters in any Catholic religious education textbook without talking about Jews and Judaism. That is buttressed by the history of Catholics and Jews in the United States. It was not incidental that the agenda of the American bishops going into the Second Vatican Council, as well as coming out of it, was religious liberty, ecumenism and Catholic-Jewish relations. (Eugene Fisher, interviewed in National Catholic Reporter, February 23, 2007)

A variant of the email spoken of below was circulated among “trads” I’m sorry to say. I’m even more sorry to have to say that this comes as no surprise.

From the Israeli newspaper, Yediot Aharonot:

Jewish groups condemn attacks on Obama

Yitzhak Benhorin

01.16.08, Yediot Aharonot

Leaders of the Jewish organizations in the United States issued a joint letter Tuesday night condemning the email being distributed both in Hebrew and in English attacking Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

In the email, Obama is depicted as a Muslim pretending to be a Christian and seeking to take over the White House and handing it over to the control of al-Qaeda.

In an open letter to the Jewish community, the leaders said that they would not endorse or oppose any candidate for president, but felt compelled to speak out against “certain rhetoric and tactics in the current campaign that we find particularly abhorrent”.

“Of particular concern, over the past several weeks, many in our community have received hateful emails that use falsehood and innuendo to mischaracterize Senator Barack Obama’s religious beliefs and who he is as a person.”

The letter was signed by Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League; William Daroff, vice president of the United Jewish Communities; David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee; Nathan J. Diament, director of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America; Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Richard S. Gordon, president of the American Jewish Congress; Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Phyllis Snyder, president of the National Council of Jewish Women; and Hadar Susskind, Washington director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs …